Revisión anatómica de <i>Neochelys salmanticensis</i> en las XXXVII Jornadas de la SEP

Varios trabajos presentados por miembros del Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED en las recientemente celebradas XXXVII Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología y V Congreso Ibérico de Paleontología están centrados en el análisis del linaje de tortugas Pleurodira. En uno de ellos se revisa el material hasta ahora conocido de Neochelys salmanticensis, proveniente de su área tipo, en el Eoceno de Salamanca, y se presenta abundante nuevo material. De esta manera, el conocimiento sobre esta especie puede ser notablemente incrementado. El resumen correspondiente a esta presentación es el siguiente:

In contrast to the Late Cretaceous record, the turtle fauna identified during much of the Cenozoic of Europe is almost exclusively represented by members of Cryptodira. The only exception occurs during the Eocene, when, in addition to bothremydids, two genera of Podocnemididae, exclusive to this continent, are identified between the early and the late Eocene. One of them corresponds to the littoral Eocenochelus. The other is Neochelys, a genus exclusive to freshwater environments, recognized as more abundant and diverse than Eocenochelus. In fact, eight species of Neochelys are known, the genus being represented in several countries. The two youngest valid species are Spanish representatives, defined in the Duero Basin: Neochelys salmanticensis, from the Bartonian of Salamanca; and Neochelys zamorensis, from the Lutetian of Zamora. Neochelys salmanticensis was defined in 1968, from a partial plastron. Several specimens, from its type area and horizon (MP15-16 of Cabrerizos) were cited during the following decades. However, few of them were figured and no detailed study on its shell variability was carried out. Thus, even though several of the Neochelys species defined in other European countries were reviewed, a diagnosis of Neochelys salmanticensis considering the current knowledge about the genus is not available. To this end, hundreds of shell remains are analyzed here, including isolated plates but also partial and complete shells. The studied individuals correspond to specimens in different ontogenetic stages, and the sexual variability of the species can also be analyzed. The collection of Neochelys salmanticensis includes abundant appendicular remains, vertebrae and even several skulls and cranial bones, most other Neochelys species being exclusively represented by shell elements. This analysis provides a much more detailed study of this species than any previously carried out for the other members of the genus Neochelys, and even for most Mesozoic and Cenozoic European pleurodires.